Some say I’m heroic for publishing this blog on sexual issues. I’m not. Largely I’m preaching to the choir—most of the 200 who receive this are on the same page.
The heroes are in the trenches. Some of you fear the day you lose your license to counsel or, for pastors, to have half of your congregation walk out on you. And for you, I offer as an encouragement these thoughts on the Unseen Real.
Long before the “holy catholic church” sculpted the Apostles’ Creed, the first century Church proclaimed, even to the death, “Jesus is Lord!” Why so much passion and so little compromise behind these three words? And what might that mean for rescue workers of the Sexual Tsunami?
In his book The Unseen Real: Life in the Light of the Ascension of Jesus, Steve Seamands makes the case that those who saw with their own eyes the ascension of Jesus caught a glimpse of the heavens that transformed them completely. The sky was parted like a curtain, and they saw the risen Lord take his seat at the right hand of the Father. This, combined with their experience with the resurrected Christ, riveted their hearts to the kingdom of heaven and forever fastened their minds on things above.
As no doubt you know, all but one of the Eleven died as a martyr. The exception was John. Legend has it that he survived being boiled in oil, but spent his waning days exiled on Patmos.
To their dying breath, they proclaimed that Jesus is Lord—not any other god, goddess or self-proclaimed deity such as the Emperor.
Is Lord. Present tense. There in the heavens, reigning supreme over all the chaos of earth, sits the Son of God.
Even the Apostles’ Creed speaks to this. The only present tense verb in the truths we affirm? We believe he “is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
Not only did this glimpse of the “unseen real” propel them in ministry, it also colored their writing of the scriptures. Resisting this world and living completely for the reigning Lord was paramount. John clearly cautioned believers in this regard:
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; 16 for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever. (1 John 2:15-17 NRSV)
Paul, who perhaps glimpsed the “unseen real” in a vision or felt the heat of its glory at his conversion, was similarly driven. In testifying to King Agrippa, he stated, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision . . .” (Acts 26:19 NRSV). And the long list of hardships and persecutions he endured is mind blowing! All was suffered because he knew that there was far more to life than the stuff of this earth.
He urged his followers to grasp that same perspective:
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-4 NRSV italics mine.)
This world is temporal. Life is fleeting. Our minds and hearts should always aim heavenward. We perform for an audience of One.
Are you still with me? Keep reading. There’s an important point in all of this. I pinky swear.
Viewing the ascension no doubt added oomph to John’s recollection of the Upper Room discourse. Note these sacred words in John 15:
18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you . . . . Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me. (John 15:18-21 NLT)
We are no longer part of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven. And the more we live this out, the more likely this world will hate us.
Certainly this was true of Jesus. To his earthly siblings on their way to Jerusalem, he told them to go ahead without him, remarking, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil” (John 7:7 NRSV). His world was the law-bound Judaism in all its hypocrisy. They sought to kill him.
Our world is far different, but increasingly it will hate us. Our obedience to Jesus will compel us to warn people, as winsomely as possible, that their works are evil.
We cannot be wimpy leaders who are so worldly minded that we are of no heavenly good. We have to know clearly what we believe and then lovingly communicate God’s truth regarding his design for sexuality. That will ruffle feathers, to say the least. Might bring some rug burns. Or, worst case scenario, lead to being doxied or canceled.
What follows is a portion of a document I helped to shape for the Wesleyan Covenant Association. Please note especially the quotes from Timothy Keller.
In his article, “What We Need to Learn from the Early Church,” Timothy Keller reminds us that Christians were out of step with the sexual practices of the culture around them from the start:
Christians forbade both abortion and the practice of “infant exposure,” in which unwanted babies were simply thrown out. Christians were also a sexual counterculture in that they abstained from any sex outside of heterosexual marriage. This was in the midst of a society that thought that, especially for married men, sex with prostitutes, slaves, and children was perfectly fine.[1]
Keller points out that while under this pressure, “...the early church thrived in that situation. Why?”
One reason was that Christians were ridiculed as too exclusive and different. And yet many were drawn to Christianity because it was different. If a religion isn’t different from the surrounding culture—if it doesn’t critique and offer an alternative to it—it dies because it’s seen as unnecessary.
Keller brings the consequences of this to light:
The earliest church was seen as too exclusive and a threat to the social order because it would not honor all deities; today Christians are again being seen exclusive and a threat to the social order because we will not honor all identities.
Did you catch that? “Jesus is Lord” was the creed which excluded all other deities. Early believers were willing to live and die by the consequences.
The toxic flotsam from the Sexual Tsunami is more than simply a message about orientation and gender identity. This dive into the unknown chaos of sexual identities will wreak grave consequences. As young people experiment with all they see on the internet and permanently alter their bodies in the pursuit of sexual fulfillment, many will be wounded, broken, and seeking God’s healing.
We must continually remind ourselves that the “unseen real” is the greater reality, especially when pressured to conform to this world’s understanding of inclusiveness. God’s design for our sexuality is a dim reflection of his covenant love awaiting us above.
No, I’m not a hero. No license to lose. A kind bishop who won’t oust me. Old enough that I care less and less what people think. But I daily remind myself that the greater reality is not the struggles of this life, but the victory awaiting us.
More next week . . .
[1] “What We Need to Learn from the Early Church,” by Timothy Keller, January 6, 2017, The Gospel Coalition, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-we-need-to-learn-from-early-church/